Book Review: All These Bodies by Kendare Blake

All These Bodies

by Kendare Blake (YA Blake)

 

In late 1950s Minnesota, Michael is a high-schooler who dreams of becoming a journalist. Everyone has been glued to the newspapers lately as a mysterious murder in Loup City, Nebraska happens again in Norfolk, then Sioux City and across Iowa to Wisconsin. In all cases, the bodies were cut deeply with a sharp instrument and their blood removed with none left at the scene. When the “Bloodless killings” come to their small Minnesota town, a teen girl is found at the scene, completely soaked in blood. She’s arrested as an accomplice, but she refuses to talk anyone but Michael about who the killer she was traveling with might be.

 

This is Michael’s chance to start his dream career, but between the Nebraska DA from Lincoln calling for the girl’s extradition and execution and the strange happenings around town, he may not have much time to find a believable truth.

 

One thing I appreciated about this book was the way it avoids 1950s pop culture and cloying nostalgia. It sticks to the technology of the time, but it feels like a novel set in contemporary times, as it would have been for the narrator. As you may already suspect, this book was directly inspired by the Starkweather killings, but it’s not a historical rendition. I do expect Young Adult fiction readers across the nation will be taking a renewed interested in that history since the author talks about it in the notes at the end. This book was un-put-downable for me.

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try In Cold Blood by Truman Capote.)

 

( official All These Bodies page on the official Kendare Blake web site )

 

Recommended by Garren H.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

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